Arrowhead Pride
The Mizzou standout had a pre-draft meeting with Kansas City.
The 2024 NFL Draft begins on Thursday of next week — and the Kansas City Chiefs have been busy meeting with draft prospects. One of them was Missouri left tackle Javon Foster, with whom the team met last week.
The big man plays an aggressive brand of football — and also possesses some of the best instincts of any player in the draft.
Foster projects to be a Day 3 pick, but he could be just what the Chiefs are hoping to find.
A three-star recruit from West Bloomfield, Michigan (a Detroit suburb), Foster had offers from a half a dozen schools — including Michigan State, Central Michigan and Cincinnati — before settling on Mizzou. Redshirted as a freshman, he played in 11 games over his first two seasons before racking up 38 straight starts at left tackle during his final three. He earned AP (and Coaches) first-team All-SEC (and AP third-team All-American) honors in 2023.
Foster has a good build for an NFL offensive lineman, checking into the NFL Scouting Combine at 6 feet 5 and 313 pounds, with 34 5/8-inch arms and 9 5/8-inch hands. He will be able to play in multiple systems — and possibly at multiple positions.
His athletic testing wasn’t off the charts, but he did ace two critical areas for offensive linemen, recording a 32 1/2-inch on his vertical jump and a 1.77-second 10-yard split on his 40-yard dash. The good vertical jump shows that he has the necessary explosion and ability to create force from his stance, while the quick 10-yard split demonstrates his ability to get off the line of scrimmage quickly.
Foster isn’t a perfect pass protector, but he gets the job done. His initial movements can be a little awkward — and sometimes, his transition into a vertical set looks labored — but his hands and physicality make up for it.
Here we see Foster’s initial vertical set go a little wide — and his hips hinge outside a bit — but he does a good job maintaining a halfway position on the edge rusher and lands a nice first strike. Showing great patience, he waits for the EDGE to get out of their extra steps — and then fires a nice strike into their chest to slow down their rush. The defender tries to turn the play into a power rush, but Foster counters by sinking his hips and anchoring down to stop him.
Foster excels at finding tempo in pass protection and using it to his advantage. A highly cerebral player, he knows when to be patient — and when to attack.
Some view Foster as a guard at the next level — and that is likely due to how effective he is at “jump-setting” pass rushers.
Here, Foster explodes out of his stance and delivers contact to the EDGE. As the pass rusher starts to lean — anticipating a run —...
